Jenni Clark

Summer 2008

After a long hiatus, I am back.  This summer has been filled with some interesting twists and turns.  First, I had surgery, which had me in bed for 2 weeks.  It was painful but delicious at the same time.  Two weeks of doing NOTHING can either totally refresh you or DRIVE YOU CRAZY!  I suffered at little from both.

Then a family vacation. A weekend in New Orleans and a week in San Antonio, TX.  Amazingly enough, with 2 teenaged children and a smoking husband, we all survived unscathed.  I would like to add pictures today.  We will see what happens.

Now the time has come to start back to work.  At Eufaula Elementary School, the living is not easy yet.  We are still struggling to get our belongings in the right place.  I think that will happen this week.  I will go and check up on it today, if I can get into the building.  We have a ton of work to do but I am very excited about the prospects of a new school, a new gifted center, a new principal, new co-workers and new students.

More very soon!

PS.  I have not addressed why I have been gone so long because it is just too boring.  All we have it this moment right now....so on we go!

Disturbing Thought...

Our children will be the first generation of Americans working in a world
where America is not number 1.

Alan November brought this to my attention at the AETC. With the growth of China and India and the constant out-sourcing that is is going on, it really is no surprise to me. And it is a done deal.....there is nothing we can do to keep it from happening. Scary thought.

As a parent, when faced with something that scares me, I try and educate myself about it. I did it last year when my kids started middle school. I am strictly a K-5 kind of teacher and it struck me that we were about to get out of my comfort zone. So I studied up and we all came through it with just a few bumps and bruises but did we learn a lot! Note to self: must start studying about 7th grade....what I hear is that developmentally, the child is growing so fast that most of the body's resources are being used for that and the brain gets shortchanged....excellent. Really looking forward to that. Can't wait.

But this is bigger than a grade level or a growth spurt. We are talking about the world in which my children and grandchildren will grow up and live in. I am not an alarmist, but I am deeply effected by just the idea. I hope to use this blog to educate myself on this topic so please, if you can share anything about this situation that will make me feel better, I would appreciate it.